It’s been more than three and a half years since the News Journal published my lengthy commentary entitled “Time to Revise the 1971 Coastal Zone Act.”

Three reasons prompted me to write that article---my interest in this unique legislation and its legacy, the dramatic environmental and technological changes since its passage and my association with Gov. Peterson.

I came late to knowing the governor, well after his years in the headlines, and simply knew him as “Russ.” My interest in the act led me to ask him if he would participate in a documentary about it, and he willingly agreed.

We spent six months together – in the last year of his life -- getting to know one another through eight 90-minute interviews. These talks were conversational, wide ranging and are available in their entirety for public review at the Delaware Public Archives. To Russ’ credit, he never once dodged a question and often offered detailed insights about his life, his career, and most importantly, how the Coastal Zone Act came to be.

Times were different in 1971. Delaware’s unemployment rate was 50 percent higher than it is now, so the “jobs” argument was touted even more. Then as now, the state Chamber of Commerce, most businesses, and all but one labor union opposed the Act. So how did it pass? This was the question I posed repeatedly to the governor.

His response was always the same….”It was the people who passed the act, not me.” I pressed him on this and reminded him of his well-known strong environmental ethic. He responded that governors don’t vote on legislation -- only legislators do, and that their votes are driven by the will of their constituents. So how were the legislators ultimately motivated to pass this legislation?

Russ believed the answer was found in the statewide public dialogue he had facilitated during the previous year. As governor, he had visited virtually every community in the state, met with “average Delawareans” and discussed the pros and cons of the legislation. His “town halls” helped influence local land-use decisions such as that by the town of Lewes not to develop 75 acres of sand dunes into an industrial park. That land is now part of Cape Henlopen State Park.

In his reflections, Russ made it very clear that he did not know if the coastal zone legislation would pass. But he emphasized that he relished the dialogue and the debate, because it gathered ever-greater public interest and engagement—and promised a piece of legislation that would stand the test of time. It has.

Now 46 years later, and more than three years since I predicted it, Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act is being reconsidered by the legislature.

Certainly no piece of legislation is perfect, but when that legislation directly affects 20 percent of the land mass of the state, I would think the citizens of Delaware deserve adequate time and facilitated public forums to evaluate the proposed legislative changes and the implications for the state’s future.

To that end, I would hope that our elected officials -- beginning with Gov. Carney —would take the time to reach out and meet with citizens throughout Delaware -- like Gov. Peterson did -- so they fully understand the implications of any proposed changes.

In my opinion, I think it is foolish to allow a legislative decision of such importance without the input from those who have lived with the original act’s 46-year legacy and whose children will have to live with the consequences of its possible changes.

Michael Oates is president of 302 Stories, and producer of the 2011 documentary, “An Evolving Legacy: Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act”